Chapter 146: It Might Be A Trap

Words : 1061 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

Chapter 146: It Might Be A Trap Inside the cave. The spiders that were crawling on the roof didn’t move. Not right away. The soldiers kept walking, their boots pressing into the dusty, uneven ground, each step slower than the last. The deeper they went, the less natural the cave felt. The walls began to look strange—too smooth in some places, too brittle in others. A few looked like they were webbed over, but it wasn’t clear. The texture had a stretch to it, like dried silk that had hardened over time. Liliana stared at the screen and said, "Slow your pace. I don’t want you walking into anything blind." "Understood," came Alpha’s leader. They moved carefully, checking each corner and each ceiling arc. The cave opened wider, but not in a way that offered comfort. It wasn’t space. It was exposure. Vulnerability. It felt like walking across a stage while the audience was hidden behind the curtains. And the spiders? They were still following. Not fast, but the sounds of their limbs tensed their nerves. And there was always that predatory gaze that is aimed at them. One above Alpha team. Another one was trailing the Beta team from a distance. Not hunting. Just watching. Then came the flicker—barely a ping on the command room scan. Liliana’s brow furrowed. She stared at the magic readouts. The spiders weren’t doing this on their own. Someone, something was controlling them. It wasn’t possession. Not completely. It was more like surveillance. "They’re probes," Liliana said quietly, almost to herself. "Commander?" a tech asked. She didn’t repeat it. Instead, she leaned forward again. "How close is the spider monster to Alpha team?" "Three meters. Still above. Hanging steady." "Zoom." The screen adjusted, focusing on the massive beast overhead. The spider’s six red eyes gleamed. Unblinking. Cold. There was nothing feral about its posture. It wasn’t twitchy or skittish. It was calm. Still. Almost... patient. Liliana narrowed her eyes. "Test it." Alpha’s team leader nodded from the field. "You want us to hit it?" "No," she replied. "Not yet. Just agitate it enough to cause a response; do not threaten the monster. I want to see how it responds." The team leader motioned with two fingers. One of the scouts raised his arm slowly, locking onto the spider with a low-charged stun pistol. The type that wouldn’t kill but would definitely send a message. He took aim. The spider moved instantly. No noise. No delay. One second it was hanging still, and the next, it scurried across the ceiling at terrifying speed, deeper into the cave and out of sight. The team froze. Even the experienced ones. Because it wasn’t just the speed. It was the direction. The spider didn’t flee at an angle or to safety. It went deeper. On purpose. As if it were going back or even leading them in. Liliana’s eyes stayed locked on the screen. "It’s not scared," she said. "It’s acting on command." The rest of the spiders vanished soon after. Not one attacked. Not one stumbled. They just moved into the dark as if the scene was done. And that’s when it hit them. The scent. The air changed. From dry stone to something heavier. Thicker. Sticky. Almost sweet—but not in a good way. One of Beta’s scouts touched the wall lightly with his glove. It gave a little. His hand stuck. Only for a second. Then it peeled off with a faint string of translucent silk attached to his palm. "Commander..." he said, voice tight. "This is a nest." No one moved. The walls weren’t walls anymore. They were old webbing. Thick layers, hardened into the cave structure like armor. Some even had bones tangled inside. Not human. But big. "Everyone freeze," Liliana said through the comms. "Don’t move another step until I say so." The soldiers obeyed. Lights scanned the space slowly now. More webbing. Some up high. Some are near the floor. And some of them were pulsing. Like they were breathing. One of the officers near Liliana whispered, "Commander... is this where they hatch their young?" Liliana shook her head slowly. "No. This isn’t a nursery." She looked at the screen again, her voice low but clear. "This is their main nest." A tech officer turned. "Ma’am, we’re picking up multiple life signatures now... hundreds of them." Liliana’s eyes didn’t leave the screen. "Then it’s worse than we thought." Meanwhile, on the ground, the two teams also saw them; hundreds of smaller, faint but real magic signatures lined the walls and ceilings. Many were dormant. But a few were moving. "You see it?" Alpha’s leader said into the comms. "I see it," Liliana answered. "Stay low. Lights on minimum. And don’t touch anything." A tremor moved through the floor. Subtle. But unmistakable. And then... the web trembled. Not all of it. Just one thick line stretched across the ceiling, connecting two heavy arcs of stone. It vibrated. Once. Twice. Then it went still. But the meaning was clear. Communication. "Something knows we’re here," Liliana said. "They’re calling each other," one of the team members whispered. "Do we fall back?" Beta’s vice-lead asked. Liliana didn’t answer right away. Her mind was calculating. There wasn’t much danger right now, but it could be a trap. Not to kill them quickly. To watch them. Test them. Observe their reaction. "No," she said. "I want you to hold position and listen. No forward movement for the next two minutes." "Yes, Commander." She turned to her comms officer. "Send a signal to HQ. Get a special unit on standby. If things go south, I want close-range suppression troops, anti-beast class." "They’ll need five minutes to prep," the officer replied. "Tell them to run." She turned back to the screen. Her voice dropped lower, steadier. "To all personnel inside the cave, you now have free reign to defend yourselves. If any creature drops, strikes, or breaks cover, you fire at will. Stay alive. Reinforcements are en route." There was a pause. Then Alpha’s captain responded. "Copy that." Liliana leaned on the table with one hand, watching the readings. She had seen many battlefields. Many dark missions. But this? This is something she hadn’t seen before, but she had a good guess as to what it was, and she doesn’t know if she should be happy or sad about this.

Chapter 146: It Might Be A Trap

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